Mothproof garment bag



April 1, 1952 J. J. MINTZ 2,591,277

MOTHPROOF GARMENT BAG Filed July 7, 1949 INVENTOR. W605 f /7//V7"ZPatented Apr. 1, 1952 UNITED rvro'rnraoor GARMENT BAG Jacob J. Mintz,Somerville, N. 3., assignor to A. L. Siegel 00., Inc., New York, N. Y.,a corporation of New York Application July 7, 1949, Serial No. 103,470

1 Claim.

- The present invention relates to a garment bag construction, and inparticular to one adapted for use either as a normal garment bag or, inconjunction with a supply of conventional mothproofing material, as amothproof garment bag.

Garment bags have, in the course of their development, assumed a widevariety of forms. The one which has met with most widespread publicacceptance includes top, bottom, side, and end walls, the shape of thebag being imparted by a rigid frame which supports the top wall and fromwhich garments may be suspended. The walls of this type of bag arenormally made of flexible synthetic plastic sheeting, and most commonlyof a vinyl resin, and one of the end walls is usually provided with aslide fastener closure through which garments may be inserted into orremoved from the bag.

Such bags, while readily useable at most times for the storage ofgarments, have not proved to be particularly useful for the storage ofgarments over the summer, since the material of which the bag is formedis not of a nature such that it can be impregnated with mothproofingmaterial. Consequently, it has been necessary, when storing winterclothes, to utilize different garment bags, usually made of anon-plastic material, such as paper, which has been impregnated with asuitable mothproofing substance.

The non-adaptable nature of the plastic garment bag, insofar asmothproofing is concerned, has been an important drawback to the fullestacceptance of such bags by the public, since each householder is thusrequired to have a separate set of bags used only during the summer and,because over the period of a year the impregnation in the material ofthe bags becomes extremely dissipated, usually useable only for onesummer. Consequently, various expedients have been resorted to in anattempt to render the plastic type garment bag, which is inherentlypreferable because of improved appearance and improved ease ofaccessibility to garments, useable all year round and convertible fromWinter to summer use at will. One expedient proposed has been tosprinkle a suitable mothproofing substance, such as paradichlorobenzene,inside the bag so that its vapors will fill the bag and serve to protectthe clothes stored therein. This expedient has not proved particularlysuccessful both because the usual mothproofing materials tend to reactwith the vinyl plastic sheets which define the walls of the bag so as tocause them to become hard and brittle, and because the loosemothproofing material creates problems of its own insofar as health andcleanliness are concerned, particularly if a garment should accidentallyfall to the bottom of the container and into a pile of loosemothproofing material. The former of these difiiculties can be overcomeby lining the bag with a flexible polyethylene sheet, as set forth inthe copending application of Emanuel London, Serial No. 35,371, filedJune 20, 1948, and entitled Mothproofing Resistant Plastic Garment Bag,assigned to the assignee of the present application, now Patent No.2,584,722, granted February 5, 1952. The latter disadvantage is,however, more fundamental.

It has also been proposed to provide the garment bag with a containerseparate and distinct from the walls thereof and securable on the insideof the garment bag, into which container mothproofing material may beplaced when desired. In this manner the garment bag is renderedconvertbile from mothproofing to nonmothproofing use, but since an extracontainer is required, additional expense is involved. The containerswhen not in use either form an unsightly addition to the garment bag ifpermanently secured thereto or tend to become lost during the non-summermonths if removable therefrom.

The present invention relates specifically to a unitary garment bagconstruction which is efficiently useable as a mothproofing garment bagWithout any of the disadvantages as set forth above and which is just asreadily convertible into a non-mothproofing garment bag for use duringmost of the year. To this end, at least one of the walls of the garmentbag, and perhaps most conveniently the top wall thereof, is made ofmulti-ply construction, two of the plies of which form betweenthemselves a space for receiving a supply of vapor-emitting mothproofingmaterial, the inner ply being permeable to mothproofing vapors butimpermeable to the mothproofing material itself, the outer ply or plieshaving a closeable opening through which the mothproofing material canbe introduced into the space between the plies. By means of thisconstruction, a garment bag is produced which has an appearanceidentical with that of the standard type of garment bag in use today,which has a container for mothproofing material built integrallythereinto in an unobtrusive way, so as not to mar the appearance or easeof use of the garment bag, which can be converted from mothproofmg tonon-mothproofing use whenever desired and which can be constructed inthe same manner as conventional garment bags so as not of or inadditionto the top wall 2'.

a r 3 to require any substantial additionalmanufacturing operation.

To the attainment of the foregoing advantages and for such other objectsas may hereinafter appear, the present invention relates to theconstruction of a garment bag as defined in the appended claims and asdescribed in this specification, taken together with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a three-quarter perspective view of the garment bag of thepresent invention taken from above, with a part broken away;

Fig. 2 is a top View thereof, with a part broken away;

Fig. 3 is a side cross-sectional view Of'jbll central and right handportion of Fig. 2, taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a partial side-cross-sectlonal View of the left hand side ofFig. 2 taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 2; and 7 Fig.5; is a partialside crossssectional view showing; another embodiment of thepresentinvention.

The garment bag embodying the present invention which; is hereillustrated takes the generally rectangular form. which ischaracteristic of most garment bags on the market, but it will beunderstood that the particular shape of the bag forms no part of the,present. invention. The bag disclosed comprises atopwvall 2,.a bottomwall 3, side Walls 4- and-B, and'end; walls 8 and as, the end wall 8being provided with the conventional vertical slide. fastener closuret2. so as to provide access to, the. interior of the bag. The. top wall2- is given. shape by means of a metal frame l l (seeFigs. 3 and 4,wherethe frame is illustrated irr broken. lines):, the. frame. includinga central portion lfil from which the garments may be suspended, hooksI8, passing through the top wall: 2:, being secured to the frame i l andusually to. the central portion l6. thereof so that the entire garmentbag: with the garments therein may be hung-from a clothes. rocl 20.

' As -here illustrated, the vapor-emitting mothproofing material, suchascamphor, paradichloro benzene, and the'like, is adapted to be receivedin a' space or pocket formed in the top wall '2, that wall beingpreferred because of the ease in achieving smooth; distribution of themothproofing material in the space adapted to contain it.

However, any one of the walls of the garment bag could also be used tothesame end either in place The wall 2 is here disclosed as ofmulti-plyconstruction in- V eluding an inner ply 22 of polyethylene sheetin orother suitable material which is resistant to the 'd'eteriorative actionofthe mothproofing substance, an outer ply 24 of vinyl resin sheeting orother similar material adapted to impart sufficient strength to thegarment bag, and an intermediate ply 25 of polyethylene or-the likeinterposed between the inner and outer plies 22 and 2 5 in order toinsulate the outer vinyl ply 24 from the deteriorative action of themothproofing substance.

If desired in order to enhance the decorative appearance'of the garmentbag and also in order to give some inherent structural rigidity to thetopwall 2 stuffing 30- may be placed between the plies 24 and. 26, theplies being stitched together by means of stitching-32' soas to form aquilted eifect.

The-body of the inner ply 22 is separable from the-bodiesoftheouter-plies 2:4' and 26 so as to to: receive and. hold asupply ofthevapor-e2nitwithout any artificial aid.

ting mothproofing material. The essential characteristic of the innerply 22 is that it be permeable to the mothproofing vapors emitted by themothproofing material, so that said vapors can fill the interior of thegarment bag and thus perform their mothproofing function with respect tothe garments stored in the bag, and yet not be permeable to the solidmothproofing material itself, so that said material is retained withinthe space 34 and is not permitted to directly contact the garmentsstored in the bag or fall into the interior of the bag so as to presentproblems of health and cleanliness. When the inner ply 22 is formed ofpolyethylene sheeting, which is not itself inherently vapor-permeable,the sheeting is provided with a plurality of small spaced perforations35 of a size such that the granules of solid mothproofing materialcannot pass therethrough. If the inner ply 22 should be made of some nottoo tightly woven fabric which would therefore be inherentlyvapor-permeable, it would not be necessary to provide the perforations35, sincethe inothproofing vapors could pass: through such a ply 22 andinto the interior of the bag. That portion, of the top wall 2 coveringthe. space 3i, that'is. to say, the upper plies e l and 28 of theembodimentof Figs. 1-4, is made as non-vapor-permeable as. is convenientconsonant with appearance and construction problems. When plasticsheeting of the vinyl or polyethylene type is employed,v which sheetingis inherently non-vapor-permeable, no special provisions need be made toattain this When the quilting efiect specifically disclosed in Figsjlthrough 4 is embodied into the garment bag, the passage of the stitching32 through the plastic plies 2i and 25 renders the outer portion of thetop wall slightly vapor-permeable but not to any appreciable degree. Inorder to provide access to the space 34 so that the mothproofingmaterial can be inserted therein when it is desired that the garmentbagbe used for mothproofing purposes or removal therefrom when it isdesired that thegarment bag notice so used, the upper portion ofthewall2, that is to say, theplies 2'5 and 26 in the embodiment of Figs. 1through 4, is provided with a closeable opening 38 defined by the slidefastener closure 49. The slide fastener it is preferably of the tightlyfitting type so as to prevent to as great a degree as possible escapeofmot-hproofing vapors therethrough. V

The side walls 4 and t and the end walls 8' and iii are also preferablyof twoly construc tion, the outer ply A2 being of vinyl sheeting orother strong material and the inner ply M being of polyethylene"sheeting or other similar mate'- rial resistant to the deteriorativeaction of the mothproofing material. The meeting edges of thevariouswalls are sewntogether along the edges of the bag as by the stitching45, which: also may serve to secureasuitable decorative plastic tape 48to the bag so as to hide the raw edges of the various sheets. 1

Since the hooks l8 must pass through the. top

wall 2, eyelets 5B. are. provided, each eyelet: hav-.

ing a body portion 52 passing through all of the plies of the top walland having benteover'fianges .54, which press all of the plies intosealing. en-

gagement so that mothproofing vapors cannot escape around the eyelet- Ashere illustrated, the V inner flange 54 presses directly againsta;metal:

Washer 56' and a rubberized or thin plastic washer 58 is interposedbetween the metal; washer 5B; anditheinner ply 22.

A simplified embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in Fig.5, this embodiment being particularly adapted for use with mothproofingmaterial which does not attack or deteriorate the plastic sheeting ofwhich the garment bag is made. In this embodiment the top wall 2 ismerely of two-ply construction the inner ply 22 being formed of anysuitable plastic sheeting and provided with the perforations 36 and theouter ply 24 being made of a non-perforated plastic sheeting which isconsequently not permeable to the mothproofing vapors.

The construction above described defines a garment bag substantiallyindistinguishable in internal and external appearance from conventionalgarment bags (except for the existence of the slide fastener closure 40on the top wall 2), and one which may be constructed in the same mannerand for substantially the same cost as conventional garment bags, butwhich is nevertheless convertible at will from conventional use tomothproofing use and which may be reconverted to conventional usewhenever desired. Consequently, the same garment bag can be used for thestorage of the same garments throughout the year. During the summermonths a supply of mothproofing material may be inserted into the space34 via the opening 38 and the slide fastener closure 40, the vaporsemitted from that mothproofing material passing through thevapor-permeable inner ply 22 and saturating the interior of the garmentbag. When the months of moth danger have passed, the mothproofingmaterial can be readily removed from the space 34 via the opening 38,and the garment bag can i then be useable in conventional manner.- Eachsummer a fresh supply of mothproofing material can be introduced intothe-space 34, thus per' mitting the use of the same garment bag over alarge number of years with maximum mothproofing efiiciency each summer.The mothproofing material is retained in an enclosure which is anintegral part of the garment bag construction, thus reducing thepossibility that the said mothproofing material might have an allergicor health-injurious effect upon the individuals in Whose homes it isused and eliminating the possibility that the mothproofing materialmight come in contact with the clothes stored in the bag, from which itsremoval is relatively difficult, or that it might spill or be spilledaround the closet or the house, thus raising a difficult cleaningproblem. Since the container for the mothproofing material is integrallybuilt into the garment bag structure, it is always ready for use whendesired, and by reason of the mode of construction of the garment bag,the presence of the container does not in any way detract from thedecorative appearance of the garment bag or present any impediment toits use.

It will be apparent that many variations may be made in the presentinvention without departing from the scope thereof as defined in thefollowing claim.

I claim:

A mothproof garment bag comprising spaced walls forming an enclosure fora garment and formed of a soft, flexible vinyl plastic sheeting, one ofsaid walls being formed with three plies of plastic sheeting securedtogether along their peripheries, the outer ply comprising the flexiblevinyl plastic sheeting of said wall and the inner and intermediate pliescomprising soft, fiexible sheeting of polyethylene, said polyethyleneplies being separated from each other except along their saidperipheries to define a pocket space closed so that solid mothproofingmaterial When placed therein is insulated from contact with said outerply and from the interior of the garment enclosure, said innerpolyethylene ply being perforate and permeable to vapors of themothproofing material placed in said space and both the inner andintermediate plies being resistant to the deteriorative action of saidmothproofing material, said outer and intermediate plies of said onewall having registering openings provided with a closure through whichsaid mothproofing material can be introduced into said pocket space fromthe exterior of said garment bag.

JACOB J. MINTZ.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,681,923 Collins Aug. 28, 19281,895,406 Blechman Jan. 24, 1933 1,981,558 Lewis Nov. 20, 1934 1,986,279Miller Jan. 1, 1935 2,058,177 Rail Oct. 20, 1936 2,185,688 Hargis Jan.2, 1940 2,547,530 Mehl Apr. 3, 1951 2,572,669 Sarge et a1 Oct. 23, 1951

